Mr. Laurent C. Tuo Profile

Laurent C. Tuo

Deputy Director at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Proceedings Article | 5 October 2016 Paper

Reticle decision center: a novel applications platform for enhancing reticle yield and productivity at 10nm technology and beyond

George Hwa, Raj Bugata, Kaiming Chiang, Suresh Lakkapragada, Vikram Tolani, Sandhya Gopalakrishnan, Chun-Jen Chen, Chin-Ting Yang, Sheng-Chang Hsu, Laurent Tuo

Proceedings Volume 9985, 99851Z (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2241482

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Reticles, Inspection, Metrology, Defect inspection, Manufacturing, Semiconducting wafers, Databases, Computing systems, Operating systems

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In the semiconductor IC manufacturing industry, challenges associated with producing defect-free photomasks have been dramatically increasing. At the 10nm technology node, since the 193nm immersion scanner numerical aperture has remained the same 1.35 as in previous nodes, more multi-patterning and aggressive SMO illumination sources are being used to effectively print smaller feature CDs and pitches. To accommodate such specialized sources, more model-based mask OPC and ILT have been used making mask designs very complicated. This in turn makes mask manufacturing very challenging especially for the defect inspection, repair, and metrology processes that need to guarantee defect-free masks. Over the past few years, considerable innovation have been made in the areas of defect inspection and disposition that has ensured continued predictability of mask quality to wafer and final chip yields. The accurate disposition of each mask defect before and after repair has been facilitated by a suite of automated applications such as ADC, LPR, RPG, AIA, etc. that work together with the inspection, repair, and metrology tools and effectively also provide the best possible utilization of the tool capability, capacity and operator resources. In this paper we introduce a new consolidated applications platform called the Reticle Decision Center (RDC) which hosts all these supporting software applications on a centralized server with direct connectivity to mask inspection, repair, metrology tools and more. The paper details how the RDC server is architected to host any application in its native operating system environment and provides for high availability with automatic failover and redundancy. The server along with its host of applications has been tightly integrated with KLA-Tencor’s Teron mask inspectors. The paper concludes with showing benefits realized in mask cycle-time and yield as a result of implementing RDC into a high-volume 10nm mask-shop production line.

Proceedings Article | 4 October 2016 Paper

Megasonic cleaning strategy for sub-10nm photomasks

Jyh-Wei Hsu, Martin Samayoa, Peter Dress, Uwe Dietze, Ai-Jay Ma, Chia-Shih Lin, Rick Lai, Peter Chang, Laurent Tuo

Proceedings Volume 9985, 998515 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2241143

KEYWORDS: SRAF, Photomasks, Cavitation, Particles, Inspection, Glasses, Plasma, Mask cleaning, Acoustics, Oxygen

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Proceedings Article | 23 October 2015 Paper

Accurate defect die placement and nuisance defect reduction for reticle die-to-die inspections

Vincent Wen, L. R. Huang, C. J. Lin, Y. N. Tseng, W. H. Huang, Laurent Tuo, Mark Wylie, Ellison Chen, Elvik Wang, Joshua Glasser, Amrish Kelkar, David Wu

Proceedings Volume 9635, 96351Q (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2196931

KEYWORDS: Inspection, Reticles, Dysprosium, Defect detection, Optics manufacturing, Algorithm development, Defect inspection, Detection and tracking algorithms, Standards development, Time metrology

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Proceedings Article | 20 September 2013 Paper

Automated Defect Classification (ADC) and Progression Monitoring (DPM) in wafer fab reticle requalification

T. Yen, Rick Lai, Laurent Tuo, Vikram Tolani, Dongxue Chen, Peter Hu, Jiao Yu, George Hwa, Yan Zheng, Suresh Lakkapragada, Kechang Wang, Danping Peng, Bill Wang, Kaiming Chiang

Proceedings Volume 8880, 88800A (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2031786

KEYWORDS: Inspection, Reticles, Photomasks, Semiconducting wafers, Contamination, Air contamination, Optical proximity correction, Scanners, Defect inspection, Visualization

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Proceedings Article | 16 April 2012 Paper

AIMS D2DB simulation for DUV and EUV mask inspection

Danping Peng, Ying Li, Masaki Satake, Peter Hu, Jerry Chen, S. Hsu, Rick Lai, C. Lin, Laurent C. C. Tuo

Proceedings Volume 8352, 835209 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.921128

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Diffraction, 3D modeling, Near field, Semiconducting wafers, Spherical lenses, Lithography, Deep ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet, Optical proximity correction

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Proceedings Article | 14 October 2011 Paper

Efficiency and throughput improvement on defect disposition through automated defect classification

Lin He, Noel Corcoran, Danping Peng, Vikram Tolani, Hsien-Min Chang, Paul Yu, Kechang Wang, C. J. Chen, T. H. Yen, Rick Lai, B. H. Ong, Laurent C. C. Tuo

Proceedings Volume 8166, 81661I (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.896948

KEYWORDS: Inspection, Photomasks, Defect detection, Optical proximity correction, Classification systems, Image classification, Image resolution, Defect inspection, Lithography, Metals

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Proceedings Article | 14 October 2011 Paper

Enabling virtual wafer CD (WCD) using inverse pattern rendering (IPR) of mask CD-SEM images

Thuc Dam, Dongxue Chen, Hsien-Min Chang, Noel Corcoran, Paul Yu, Linyong Pang, Chia-Wei Chang, Rick Lai, Peter Chang, Laurent Tuo

Proceedings Volume 8166, 81660O (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.896951

KEYWORDS: Scanning electron microscopy, Photomasks, Semiconducting wafers, Calibration, Critical dimension metrology, Optical proximity correction, Image processing, Signal to noise ratio, Mask making, Holons

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Proceedings Article | 29 September 2010 Paper

Lithographic plane review (LPR) for sub-32nm mask defect disposition

Vikram Tolani, Danping Peng, Lin He, George Hwa, Hsien-Min Chang, Grace Dai, Noel Corcoran, Thuc Dam, Linyong Pang, Laurent Tuo, C. J. Chen, Rick Lai

Proceedings Volume 7823, 78232G (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.864284

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Inspection, Lithography, Image restoration, Defect detection, Image transmission, Optical proximity correction, Image processing, Extreme ultraviolet, Scanning electron microscopy

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As optical lithography continues to extend into low-k1 regime, resolution of mask patterns under mask inspection optical conditions continues to diminish. Furthermore, as mask complexity and MEEF has also increased, it requires detecting even smaller defects in the already narrower pitch mask patterns. This leaves the mask inspection engineer with the option to either purchase a higher resolution mask inspection tool or increase the detector sensitivity on the existing inspection system or maybe even both. In order to meet defect sensitivity requirements in critical features of sub-32nm node designs, increasing sensitivity typically results in increased nuisance (i.e., small sub-specification) defect detection by 5-20X defects making post-inspection defect review non-manufacturable. As a solution for automatically dispositioning the increased number of nuisance and real defects detected at higher inspection sensitivity, Luminescent has successfully extended Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT) and its patented level-set methods to reconstruct the defective mask from its inspection image, and then perform simulated AIMS dispositioning on the reconstructed mask. In this technique, named Lithographic Plane Review (LPR), inspection transmitted and reflected light images of the test (i.e. defect) and reference (i.e., corresponding defect-free) regions are provided to the "inversion" engine which then computes the corresponding test and reference mask patterns. An essential input to this engine is a well calibrated model incorporating inspection tool optics, mask processing and 3D effects, and also the subsequent AIMS tool optics to be able to then simulate the aerial image impact of the defects. This flow is equivalent to doing an actual AIMS tool measurement of every defect detected during mask inspection, while at the same time maintaining inspection at high enough resolution. What makes this product usable in mask volume production is the high degree of accuracy of mask defect reconstruction, predicting actual AIMS measurements to within ±4% CD error for > 95% of defects while not missing any OOS (out-of-specification) defect and maintaining high simulation throughput of ≥250 defects/min on Luminescent's distributed computing platform. This technique enables inspection recipes to be setup based on the sensitivity required to detect small but lithographically-significant defects, even if in the process a large number of nuisance defects are detected. LPR is being implemented as an integral part of defect classification for high-volume sub-32nm technology nodes and higher. Furthermore, this technique will be essential to the lithographic disposition of defects detected on EUV masks inspected under non-actinic conditions.

Proceedings Article | 11 May 2009 Paper

Mask defect auto disposition based on aerial image in mask production

C. Y. Chen, Laurent Tuo, C. S. Yoo, Linyong Pang, Danping Peng, Jin Sun

Proceedings Volume 7379, 73791F (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.824292

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Inspection, Optical proximity correction, Semiconducting wafers, SRAF, Lithography, Defect inspection, Scanners, Image analysis, Databases

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Proceedings Article | 20 August 2004 Paper

An agile mask data preparation and writer dispatching approach

Chih-tung Hsu, Y. Chen, S. Hsin, Laurent Tuo, Steffen Schulze

Proceedings Volume 5446, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.557739

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Manufacturing, Databases, Inspection equipment, Computer aided design, Inspection, Optical proximity correction, Electronic design automation, Semiconductor manufacturing, Visualization

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Proceedings Article | 24 July 1996 Paper

Ta-Si-O absorptive shifter for the attenuated phase-shifting mask

Y. Yan, C. Cheng, C. Lin, J. Gan, T. Wu, Laurent Tuo, Jia-Jing Wang

Proceedings Volume 2793, (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245212

KEYWORDS: Transmittance, Oxygen, Photomasks, Refractive index, Tantalum, Phase shifts, Silicon, Composites, Optical properties, Deep ultraviolet

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Proceedings Article | 24 July 1996 Paper

(LaNiO3)x(Ta2O5)1-x oxide thin films for attenuated phase-shifting mask blank

C. Cheng, T. Wu, J. Gan, Laurent Tuo, Jia-Jing Wang

Proceedings Volume 2793, (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245211

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Transmittance, Oxides, Deep ultraviolet, Phase shifts, Optical proximity correction, Sputter deposition, Thin films, Ellipsometry, Reflectivity

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Showing 5 of 12 publications

Conference Committee Involvement (1)

Photomask Technology

12 September 2016 | San Jose, California, United States

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